On 11 May 1951, a year after the Constitution came into force, President of India Dr Rajendra Prasad attended the opening of the restored Somnath temple in Gujarat, ignoring Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s disapproval. The event carried significance far beyond religion—it unfolded against the backdrop of intense debates in the Constituent Assembly on the meaning of secularism and the contours of the State’s relationship with faith.

Professor Marc Galanter aptly sums up this dilemma. He writes in his essay, ‘Hinduism, Secularism, and the Indian Judiciary, “There is disagreement about what this secular state implies-whether it implies a severe aloofness from religion, a benign impartiality toward religion, a corrective oversight of it, or a fond and equal indulgence of all religions. Ther

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